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Martin Rundkvist's blog. Archaeology, skepticism, Sweden. And books and music and stuff.
Dr. Martin Rundkvist is a Swedish archaeologist, journal editor, public speaker, skeptic, atheist, lefty liberal, bookworm, and father of two.
May 31, 2008
Category: Travel
I'm in Kirkwall on the Orkney islands for a conference on maritime societies in the Viking and Medieval periods. It's a lovely sunny evening, which is apparently a rare and precious occurrence around these parts. The dialect is also something...
Posted by Martin R at 4:29 PM • 9 Comments •
May 30, 2008
Category: Archaeology
In 2005, a team led by myself and Howard Williams excavated a 9th century boat inhumation burial at Skamby in Kuddby parish, Östergötland, Sweden. The finest finds we made in the grave were a collection of 23 amber gaming...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 6 Comments •
May 29, 2008
Category: Children
It was a good talk, ranging from abstruse physics to everyday practicalities of life in space.
Posted by Martin R at 3:10 PM • 5 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
I'd find it in pretty poor taste to make dish rags with the Crucifixion.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 20 Comments •
May 27, 2008
Category: Tech
An elderly gentleman saw his grand-daughter answer her phone while holding her newborn baby...
Posted by Martin R at 3:52 PM • 13 Comments •
May 26, 2008
Category: Archaeology
Amazing to find all this insanely old material in a tract of completely nondescript woodland.
Posted by Martin R at 4:12 PM • 10 Comments •
Category: Space
It has deployed its solar panels successfully and is transmitting pictures!
Posted by Martin R at 1:47 AM • 1 Comments •
May 24, 2008
Category: Archaeology
Amazing finds from the Finnestorp war booty site.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 1 Comments •
May 23, 2008
Category: Archaeology
A massively useful research tool.
Posted by Martin R at 12:51 PM • 7 Comments •
May 22, 2008
Category: Humour
I've posted a fine example of Ansiktsburk song lyrics before: listen to a song in a language you don't understand, and try to imagine that it is actually sung in your own language though with a funny accent. Then...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 8 Comments •
Category: Skepticism
Akusai of Action Skeptics has done something pretty ostentatious and very cool: he's written the latest Skeptics' Circle blog carnival entirely as a collection of dirty limericks!"An Irishman living with Swedes Speaks about bodily needs Eat and drink well So...
Posted by Martin R at 3:56 AM • 0 Comments •
May 21, 2008
Category: Archaeology
The forty-first Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Remote Central. Archaeology and anthropology, and all about Nswazwi. It's a village in the Central District of Botswana, located close to the border with Zimbabwe. The village has primary and...
Posted by Martin R at 9:01 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Art
My talented on-line buddy, Birmingham-based design student Tatyana Mircheva, has a new photo blog where she puts up some really interesting stuff. This series is a feminist commentary on the superficiality and narcissism of the beauty industry. The young...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 0 Comments •
May 20, 2008
Category: Archaeology
I wrote to complain, and was asked for a statement.
Posted by Martin R at 5:40 PM • 7 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
Ullr is one of the old gods that were semi-forgotten in Snorri's day.
Posted by Martin R at 4:59 PM • 7 Comments •
May 19, 2008
Category: Archaeology
With its extremely late urbanisation, Sweden doesn't have much of an archaeological record compared to Italy or China or Peru. But we keep really good track of the stuff we have: active organised surveying for ancient monuments has been...
Posted by Martin R at 3:24 PM • 8 Comments •
May 17, 2008
Category: Skepticism
Getting up in the small hours on Thursday morning paid off: I'm on The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe #147!...
Posted by Martin R at 3:34 PM • 8 Comments •
Category: NOIBN
I'm frustrated about Wikipedia. Cultists are slowly and surely readjusting the Falun Gong article to their own rosy and "oh-how-persecuted-we-are" perspective. The other day I watched some anonymous loon create a new user account for the single purpose of deleting...
Posted by Martin R at 1:33 PM • 7 Comments •
Category: Tech
I'm at my son's end-of-term violin concert. Wonder if I can blog from the new smartphone w/o using email and a human intermediary? [Yay, I could! The Samsung for some reason comes with both IE and Opera preinstalled. Though Sb's...
Posted by Martin R at 9:53 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: Blogging
Tim of Remote Central has kindly stepped in to host the upcoming 41st instalment of the Four Stone Hearth anthro & archaeo blogging carnival. Send links to good recent anthroblogging to him! It needn't be your own stuff: submit all...
Posted by Martin R at 2:37 AM • 0 Comments •
May 16, 2008
Category: Tech
After some deliberation, I bought a Samsung SGH-i780 smartphone to replace my Qtek 9100. It has served me well for 2 1/4 years, but I felt it was time, and I've put it up for sale. I've only had the...
Posted by Martin R at 4:18 PM • 0 Comments •
May 15, 2008
Category: Archaeology
Yesterday I did 5.5 more man-hours of metal detecting at the "Hall of Odin" site in Västmanland with Per Vikstrand. No prehistoric finds: just a piece of a 15/16/17th century brass cooking pot. Bob Lind's craziness is once more repeated...
Posted by Martin R at 4:12 AM • 18 Comments •
May 13, 2008
Category: Skepticism
It's great to live in a country where run-of-the-mill Dominionist statements piss the right wing off most mightily.
Posted by Martin R at 9:05 AM • 31 Comments •
May 11, 2008
Category: Tree House Ruins
Logged my 600th geocache this bright May morning, took a picture of a treehouse ruin near the cache, then drove home listening to the Nashville Pussy. After lunch, me and the Rundkvist ladies took part in the annual street...
Posted by Martin R at 9:13 AM • 4 Comments •
May 10, 2008
Category: Children
"People will breathe using space suits, and at home they will have air inside their houses."
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 13 Comments •
May 9, 2008
Category: Archaeology
The island has not previously produced any Viking swords.
Posted by Martin R at 3:09 AM • 8 Comments •
May 8, 2008
Category: Archaeology
The St. Olaf site was perfect for metal detecting today, recently harrowed and almost completely without vegetation.
Posted by Martin R at 5:31 PM • 0 Comments •
May 7, 2008
Category: Archaeology
The fortieth Four Stone Hearth blog carnival is on-line at Remote Central. Archaeology and anthropology, and all relating to the Plzen Plaza! The Plzen Plaza is a new large (20,000 square meters) shopping mall and entertainment center in Plzeň,...
Posted by Martin R at 7:25 AM • 0 Comments •
May 6, 2008
Category: Archaeology
As I flipped the plug of soil over, I wasn't greeted by a dull crumpled-up piece of scrap...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 5 Comments •
May 5, 2008
Category: Music
More good and witty UK rapping, this time a year-old hit from Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip. Thanks to Paddy K for the tip-off....
Posted by Martin R at 3:27 PM • 0 Comments •
Category: Archaeology
According to the evaluation verdict, the job is likely to be given either to a 43-y-o theoretician or a 39-y-o Mayanist.
Posted by Martin R at 9:24 AM • 12 Comments •
May 3, 2008
Category: Space
They aren't looking for planet-sized objects anymore, they're down to bits of rock and ice a kilometer across.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 1 Comments •
May 2, 2008
Category: Gaming
Now and then I like to play board games: mostly Blokus, Drakborgen (a.k.a. Dungeonquest), Scrabble and Roborally. The latter is an award-winning 1994 game where each player programs a robot to move through a treacherous obstacle course and tag...
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 6 Comments •
May 1, 2008
Category: Archaeology
A conference on monastic archaeology takes place at Vretakloster 4-5 September.
Posted by Martin R at 8:20 AM • 0 Comments •
Highly Allochthonous 11.05.2009
Eruptions 11.05.2009
Not Exactly Rocket Science 11.05.2009
Corpus Callosum 11.05.2009
Starts With a Bang 11.04.2009
